The development of the bi-directional support system for the homecare patients by using Skype

我们一直关注信息技术(IT)作为支持居家护理痴呆症患者及其照顾者的工具的有用性。在日本，它通常被认为是一项“纯粹”的技术。它主要用于利用GPS系统对游荡的痴呆患者进行跟踪，然而，其在临床医学领域的应用还不是很清楚。我们相信，开发一种双向连接医务人员和居家护理患者的新系统是遏制不断增长的医疗成本和增加患者和照顾者福祉的关键。在这个研究方案中，我们使用了FletsPhone(由NTT West Japan)作为一款简单和便携的电视电话。我们对痴呆患者(京都大学医院)进行为期3个月的每周一次的干预计划，检查健康状况，并利用FletsPhone的触摸屏系统进行康复计划。虽然认知得分与对照组相比没有明显提高，但PGC道德量表得分有一定程度的提高。患者和照顾者对通过电视摄像机进行干预表示非常满意。从这一结果我们可以得出结论，使用基于IT的电视摄像机的干预方案对家庭护理患者和照顾者的支持是有效的。成本-效果良好，值得在临床医学领域广泛应用。

We have been focusing on the usefulness of information technology(IT) as a tool to support the homecare patients of dementia and their caregivers. IT is often regarded as a"mere"technology in Japan. It is mainly used in tracking the wandering dementia patients using GPS system, however, its usefulness is not yet well understood in the field of clinical medicine. We believe that development of a new system which connects medical staff and homecare patients bi-directionally is a key to curb growing medical costs and increase the well-being of the patients and caregivers. In this research proposal, we utilized FletsPhone(by NTT West Japan) as an easy and portable TV phone. We performed the intervention program for dementia patients(Kyoto University Hospital) once a week for 3 months to check health status and give a rehabilitation program utilizing the touch panel system of FletsPhone. Although the cognitive score was not improved significantly compared to the control group, the score of PGC Moral Scale increased to some extent. The patients and caregivers showed great satisfaction about the intervention via TV camera. From this result we conclude that the intervention program using IT-based TV camera is effective to support homecare patients and caregivers. The cost-effectiveness was excellent and should be utilized in the field of clinical medicine widely.